Korea's zero-fee exchange war is already reshuffling the market
Coinone and DigitalX scrapped trading fees in late August, and within weeks pulled meaningful market share away from Bithumb while Upbit held its lead.
South Korea's crypto exchanges are fighting a fee war, and the early numbers show it's working. DigitalX, owned by Mirae Asset Group, eliminated trading fees on August 24 for a full year; Coinone, backed by Korea Investment & Securities, followed on August 26 with zero fees across all tokens. Within weeks, both had meaningfully grown their share of Korean trading volume.
The numbers behind the shift
Coinone's market share nearly tripled, from 2.72% in August to 5.9% in September. DigitalX nearly doubled its own share, from 0.55% to 1.06%. The gains came largely at Bithumb's expense, which slipped from 34.28% to 29.31% — a drop of almost 5 percentage points. Upbit, Korea's dominant exchange, actually gained slightly, up 1.29 points to 63.72%, suggesting the fee war is reshuffling the middle of the market more than challenging the leader.
Why the split
An industry official offered a simple read: liquidity-focused traders stay with Upbit regardless of fees, while the fee-sensitive segment that had defaulted to Bithumb is the one actually moving. That's a narrower prize than dethroning the market leader, but for smaller exchanges fighting for relevance in a market Upbit and Bithumb have long dominated together, even a few points of share represents real progress.
Source: Seoul Economic Daily